1. Technical Field of the Invention
The technology relates to the field of fluid storage tanks, and more particularly to movable fluid storage tanks that can be used to contain water or brine, for example, in connection with oil and gas production.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been an increasing demand for energy world-wide. As a result, many different technologies are being used to meet this demand, and many are under development. Current technologies include, for example, traditional oil and gas production, secondary and enhanced oil and gas recovery techniques, coal production, use of solar panels and wind turbines to generate electricity, production of bio-fuels, use of ocean waves to generate electricity, and the use of nuclear reactors to generate electricity. It is known that in several parts of the world there are large subterranean reservoirs of natural gas, a desirable clean burning fuel, held in relatively impermeable geological formations. The relative impermeability of these formations presents a challenge to the production of these gas reserves because the gas is “tightly held” within the formations and cannot readily flow to a production well.
The technique of hydraulic fracturing of impermeable subterranean formations is being used to produce gas from relatively impermeable formations. Hydraulic fracturing, also known as “fracking” or “hydro-fracking,” is a technology that fractures underground formations creating flow pathways for release of the trapped natural gas and production of that gas for commercial purposes. Fracking operations require large quantities of water, and consequently, means for storing the water and other fluids are required.
During gas production, “brine” containing injected chemicals is produced. This brine must be disposed of in an environmentally acceptable manner. Thus, after fracking, means for storing the brine produced are required.
Brine and other fluids may be stored in portable storage tanks for a period of time. There are several different portable tank designs. However, they should preferably meet criteria of durability and resistance to deterioration under the conditions of use, and should be relatively easy and inexpensive to use and maintain.
Although this background discusses use of a fluid storage container in the context of natural gas production, the invention is not intended to be limited to this application. The tanks disclosed herein can be used in any application requiring movable fluid storage. As used herein, “fluid” is intended to generally cover materials that can be stored in a fluid storage tank trailer. For example, water, slurry, mixtures, suspension, or other flowable materials would be considered “fluids.”
While these objectives should not be understood to limit the teachings of the present invention, in general these objectives are achieved in part or in whole by the disclosed invention that is discussed in the following sections. One skilled in the art will no doubt be able to select aspects of the present invention as disclosed to affect any combination of the objectives described above.